Adoree’ Jackson was the Titans’ first-round draft pick in 2017 and spent four years in Tennessee before signing with the Giants in 2021. He says he and Titans coach Mike Vrabel were never a good fit.
Vrabel arrived after Jackson’s rookie year, and Jackson said on Steve Smith’s Cut To It podcast that the new coaching staff represented a major adjustment that he struggled to make.
“I really got tested with adversity after my rookie season because everybody on the staff got fired,” Jackson said, via the Tennessean. “. . . Vrabel got there and, at the end of the day, I had to get used to him and what he wanted. The type of player he wanted and the style he wanted as that being my first time trying to get used to it. We didn’t jell. It didn’t mesh right. My play didn’t work and the way he was coaching didn’t work for me.”
But even if the two of them didn’t mesh, Jackson says he respects Vrabel for the job he’s done in Tennessee.
“At the end of the day, even though we didn’t mesh as a player and coach, as people, I can resonate with some of the things he was saying. At the end of the day, I can never bash him or say anything bad,” Jackson said.
As the NFL’s reigning Coach of the Year, Vrabel’s accomplishments are hard to question. Even if Jackson questioned whether Vrabel was the right coach for him.